Autistic Children Blog

We’re half way through the second week of the school holidays. I was just thinking about how it’s not been long enough but as I’ve just had to break up a fight between Bill and Bridie I’m revising that wish!

We’ve had a nice little break. I don’t have a car this week thanks to a pesky pole jumping in front of me in the carpark at gymnastics. Paul had to put it in for repair and they have it for 5 days. This meant that we had to get all our activities in last week so it’s lovely to have a nice enforced stay at home break.

We did our holiday catchup with our friends Catriona and Jose last Monday. It’s become a ritual that we love, we meet Bec and her kids there and have lunch, eating lots of yummys and drinking lots of cuppas. Beth always wants to know why we are going to visit her ‘ex boyfriend’, Jose isn’t aware that they were ever going out. He’s at mainstream high school with a full time aide and seems to be doing pretty well. He’s a popular boy and enjoys socialising, something that Beth really isn’t interested in that much.

Tuesday we went to the movies with one of Beth’s old friends Jess and her sister Hayley who is Bridie’s friend. It was nice, tight arse Tuesdays were even cheaper with tickets to kids movies being reduced to $6.00 each. We came home and the girls watched a movie. I’m never sure what to do when Beth has playdates. Her version of a friend coming over is them watching her play on the ipad. They sat outside for a while, I think they all enjoyed themselves.

On Thursday Bridie and Bill went to sleepovers at friends houses. I dropped Bill of at his friend Stevies and was having a cuppa with his mum when I realised Beth had disappeared. She was with the boys. Stevie had another friend there – Ethan. I thought ‘here we go’ and I was right. I heard Beth asking if Ethan would like to go out on a date with her. For some reason she thought he was Stevie’s nanny. She hasn’t shut up about him. I had to say that he is only 13, that he is too young for her. Poor boy, he didn’t know what to say but he was lovely about it!

The sun has been out a lot these holidays so we bought a big swing chair to sit outside on. Beth decided that she wanted to go to Chesterfield Farm and she wanted Paul to take her. As their relationship has been a bit strained lately I of course encouraged this and the other kids went too. Paul had yesterday off so off they went at 10, not getting home ’til about 1.30pm. When they got home Beth told me she had seen her second cousin Olly. Now the kids do have a second cousin called Olly so I naturally assumed it was him. I asked and Paul said that this Olly was a camel. When she took him to see the camel Paul asked ‘how is he your second cousin?’ and Beth replied “He’s on mums side of the family. I’m part camel!”

Beth had a little fall the other night. When Paul asked her to show him her hip she said to him “That would be inappropriate Dad, I can’t expose myself to you.” She does amaze me sometimes with not only the correct rules that she lives by but her use of language, she’s usually using the correct words. Then again she does study a dictionary for fun.

I’ll leave you with a Beth funny. We were watching Kung Fu Panda 2 the other night and Beth has clearly studied it quite extensively. She went in and out of characters, using their tone and knowing it word for word. If she wasn’t talking as them she was yelling words of encouragement to the screen like a football game. It must be so interesting in her head!